Duke Nukem Forever has been in development since 1997. And the man who toiled away on that game for over a decade lost a bunch of cash. Tens of millions, apparently. Ouch.

Gearbox Software has taken the reigns of the game from its original developer 3D Realms. In May 2009, the world around Duke Nukem Forever crumbled as its developer imploded. "Duke was dead," says Gearbox's Randy Pitchford.

3D Realms, still plugging away at the slightly delayed Duke Nukem Forever, may have given up the…
Read more Read more

"I spoke to George Broussard and he said, 'Randy, this is the worst day of my life' but you could hear in his voice there was more," Pitchford says. "This was 12 years of his life... try and imagine what you've achieved in 12 years, Gearbox has made five games in that time."

Advertisement

Advertisement

According to Pitchford, "George Broussard is not a poor man but I would estimate that he lost 20 to 30 million dollars of his own money on Duke Nukem Forever - I don't care who you are that's a hell of a lot of money."

It is. It really, really is.

Broussard, Pitchford says, was "committed to Duke to the point of insanity". And in May 2009, Duke was dead.

Sponsored

"He decided he would rather have it burn than have a bad version of the game come out."

The game is finally penciled in for release. Gearbox is aiming to release it in 2011.